634 SO MA TERIAERISMA TUB A 



with dusky except on the throat ; wings greyish brown, the greater 

 coverts and secondaries indistinctly tipped with whitish ; bill dull blue ; 

 legs and feet dull yellowish brown. 



Hob. North Pacific ; the coast of Alaska from Norton Sound 

 to Port Barrow on the American side of Bering Sea, and the 

 Chukchi peninsula in 67 N. lat. on the Asiatic side. 



In general habits it does not appear to differ from its allies. 

 In the summer its food consists of small Crustacea, grass seeds, 

 and such other food as the brackish pools afford. Its nest is 

 a slight hollow in some dry grassy spot close to a pond on the 

 marsh, well lined with grass ; and the eggs, 6 to 8 or 9 in number, 

 are deposited about the middle of June, and are described by 

 Mr. E. W. Nelson as being light olive-drab in colour, and small 

 for the size of the bird, extremes measuring 2*82 by T81 and 

 2-60 by 1-87. 



In August the male assumes a plumage much like that of the 

 female, as do all the males of the Eiders. 



ERISMATURA, Bonap., 1832. 



S77. WHITE-HEADED DUCK. 



ERISMATURA LEUCOCEPHALA. 



ISi-ismatura leucocephala (Scop.), Ann. i. Hist. Nat. p. 65 (1769) ; 

 (Gould), B. of E. v. pi. 383 ; Dresser, vi. p. 677, pi. 451 ; Salvadori, 

 Cat, B. Br. Mus. xxvii. p. 442 ; Blanf. F. Brit. Ind. Birds, iv. 

 p. 466; E. mersa, Bp. Comp. List. p. 59 (1838); (Naum.), xii. 

 p. 149, Taf. 315. 



Canard couronnt, French ; Pato-tarro, Span. ; Gdbbo rugginoso, 

 Ital. ; Ruderente, German ; Savka, Russ. 



< ad. (Transylvania). Crown black ; forehead, sides of head to above 

 the eye, chin, and nape pure white ; neck black dotted with buffy brown ; 

 lower neck to upper breast, and upper back chestnut-red, the two former 

 delicately barred with black ; back, scapulars, and rump warm ochreous 

 buff, the last darker, and all vermiculated with blackish grey ; secondaries 

 and larger wing-coverts similar but more greyish buff ; lesser coverts dull 

 ashy and slightly vermiculated ; tail blackish, long and stiff; under parts 

 below the breast buffy white, obscurely marked with reddish brown ; 

 flanks dull chestnut-brown tinged with buff, vermiculated with dark 

 brown ; bill pale ultramarine, and much swollen at the base ; legs 

 blackish plumbeous ; iris dark brown. Culmen I'D, gape 1-82, wing 6%3, 

 tail 4'3, tarsus T35 inch. The female is more rufous in colour; chin, 

 lower cheeks, and a stripe running under the eye towards the nape-white ; 

 rest of head blackish tinged with rufous ; upper parts and breast lacking 

 the blackish bars ; beak dull plumbeous ; otherwise like the male. 



